Why 17?

13/02/2009

Those of you who’ve followed this blog for a while and anyone who has read the information on the Salt website about The Ambulance Box will know that our first child died very shortly after birth. SANDS Lothians, the Lothians arm of the stillbirth and neonatal death society, was an enormous support to us as we began to work through the grief, pain and anger in the months afterwards. (Indeed, we made some very good friends in a couple we met through the organisation.)

UK SANDS runs the Why 17? campaign, highlighting the incidence of stillbirth and neonatal death in the country. I’ve just added a Why 17? banner to the sidebar. Click it and it should take you to the Why 17? site. Here’s an explanation of the campaign from the site:

17 babies die every day in the UK, the tragic victims of stillbirth or neonatal death, a statistic that is repeated every single day across the country.

This shocking figure, the loss of 6,500 babies every year, is something the public is not generally aware of. Most people think stillbirths don’t happen today, yet stillbirth in the UK is 10 times more common than cot death.

At Sands, stillbirth and neonatal death charity, we feel that this level of baby loss is totally unacceptable which is why we have launched the Why17? campaign to raise awareness of this devastating loss and to ask the question:

“Why are 17 babies a day dying and what can be done to halt this national tragedy?”

Related

Very sorry for your loss, Andrew. My god – 17 babies a day – that is so tragic… my sister lost her daughter to stillbirth and it has been an absolute hell for her… Thanks for highlighting this campaign.

So sorry to hear about your sister’s baby, Liz. It’s heartbreaking to go through that kind of experience. Hope she has been able to find support. UK SANDS runs an internet forum, which my wife finds very helpful.